When the joy of the journey began

One year ago today, Paul and I saw Claire's face for the first time. We were on our way to Jasper to celebrate Paul's birthday when we learned that we had a daughter, a girl named Yu Cai Wen. When we arrived in Jasper, we couldn't wait to open our email and see little Cai Wen's face. We can still feel the pure joy and magic of that moment when we saw her referral pictures. Although we had never seen her before, there was a kind of instant recognition like, yep, that's our girl.

All that night and the days following, we studied her pictures like crazy, zooming in on every last detail. Sometimes one of us will still crook our hand in the same manner she did in one pic, and get attention of the other. We then break out in big smiles, knowing exactly what the other is thinking. We couldn't wait to meet her in person, to know what her face looked like when she smiled or what her voice sounded like.

This morning as our birthday boy awoke, he was greated with Claire's sweet little voice saying saying "happy birthday" (although it came out more like "happy bay"). What a great start to a birthday. Happy Birthday Paul!

Here's the birthday boy with the gift of all time:

And here's our little family now, a year after seeing Claire's beautiful face the first time:

Also, a big Happy Anniversary to our travel-mates who share this special day (or week) with us. Not only do we remember every moment of receiving our own referral, but we remember very well seeing your referral pictures online, seeing how unique each baby was, and recognizing the same toys in the photos. We also remember the anticipation of meeting all of you, and are now so happy to call you friends.